Ok, who's hogging all the wii's????

[jasmine64]

I have been searching for one for my daughter since way back before Christmas.

Where are all of the Nintendo Wii's?

I was told by one of the managers at Gamestop it could be 3 months before they get some in to sell. Were only taking prepaid orders. No longer doing that because the demand is so high.

[Pat Pixley]

I'm not into the whole wii's  but when we where at Sam's club last Sunday
( In Lansing MI )  they had 3 of them setting on a shelve I didn't look at the price
I just thought  yeah after the big rush for Christmas hardly any, then after the holiday rush is over they end up setting on the shelves.

   Jas. you may want to check out you local Sam's club  .

[bubba]

They do show up in stores from time to time... In our area, Toys- r' Us has their new stock out on Sun morning. I know before Xmas it was a big line outside way before they even opened. I'll keep my eye out for one.

[jasmine64]

Since they dropped the price to 250.00 they are hard to find.

[bubba]

A buddy works next door to the Nintendo store in NYC.. At the end of October, they had piles of them in the store. Now they sell a few a day on a number system. A line forms outside the store and they hand out tickets to the first soo many people... Then you wait for the store to open to get it..

[Pixel]

I remember Nintendo offering a so-called "rain check" program which supposedly guaranteed
the holder a Wii by January 29. Gee, thanks alot, Nintendo. 

I always thought a "rain check" was meant to allow a person who could not purchase an
item that was on sale later at the sale price if the item was sold out.

Nintendo's program went like this. Pay $250 (full price) and tax up front, get a piece of
paper that basically reserved the holder a Wii, or something like that.

Wow, they're doing Wii customers such a big favor.

Total bunk if you ask me. I used to love video games, but between the PS3 costing a king's
ransom, Nintendo charging $$$ for the extra controllers, and just Microsoft in general the
next big thing in gaming just doesn't excite me any more.

[bubba]

I still think that Bang for the Buck, the Wii is the best toy... The capabilities of that system are pretty amazing. It brings you into the game with all the movements. They are working on even a fitness system to work with it. Its already available in overseas market.

[TechnoHat]

To put this into perspective, Nintendo is pumping out 1.8 million wiis a month.  The reason you can't find one is people are buying them as soon as they land on shelves.  It's not just the Christmas time rush either.  Wiis have been selling like this since launch.

As for the rain checks, that was a promotion through Gamestop for people who wanted to give a Wii for Christmas but because of high demand had been unable to find one.  If you want to find one, look in sales flyers. If Target, walmart, shopko, etc. have them in their sales flyer, then that means they are getting some in. How many is the real question. Usually between 2 and 20 though sometimes they may get as many as 80.  If it's in the sales flyer they hold their wiis in the backroom until the first day of the sale (usually Sunday).  So if you want one, get there early and stand in line. 

Gamestops will usually get one shipment in a week and it's usually tuesday or wednesday whenever their ups delivery is.  Most times this is between 10:00 am and 1:00 pm. Ask the employees and they can tell you.  If you're persistent you can find one.

[jasmine64]

I'm thinking eventually we will find one.

Maybe she can find one today while she's in Memphis.

[Pixel]

I'm somewhat surprised the Wii has been this popular. I kept up with it from the days
Nintendo called it the "Revolution". A lot of people, some in the game media, were
questioning just whether the motion sensitive thing would be a hit.

Two things happened.

Nintendo's research concerning how people would react to a motion sensitive
controller apparently turned out to be correct.

Sony shocked the world by having the higher end PS3 sell for just shy of $600. IMO, that
was a huge mistake for their market share.

I actually think the relatively high cost of the PS3 and Xbox 360 allowed Nintendo to
charge a little more for the Wii.

I've kept an interest in the Wii for the sake of a "loyalty" of sorts to Nintendo, which
I've had ever since I started playing video games almost 20 years ago. While I do have
non-Nintendo systems, I've always hoped Nintendo could dominate the console market
once again. At least for one generation anyway.

I see Sony's $500/$600 initial price point for the PS3 as such sheer arrogance that I'd
really like to see them lose their dominant position. Once Microsoft dominates a market,
they NEVER let go (just look at PC's). That leaves me with Nintendo. As an adult, it's a little
childish of me to take sides in a silly console market-share batttle; nonetheless, if there's
a side to be taken, I'll think I'll go with Nintendo this time.

A little perspective. While the Nintendo 64 had the best graphics of it's generation, the
high cost of software development, and the high retail price of the final cartridges helped
hold it back while the original PlayStation dominated.

In ways, the PS3 reminds me of the N64 - the most powerful (according to its manufacturer)
and the most expensive console of its generation.